The USA will open Basketball World Cup play towards New Zealand this summer season, with Greece and Jordan additionally awaiting the People within the group stage.
And the earliest the U.S. can see France in an Olympic closing rematch is the semifinals.
FIBA held the World Cup attract Manila on Saturday, when the 32 groups that certified for the sphere discovered their preliminary matchups for the match that runs from Aug. 25 by way of Sept. 10. The People — the four-time defending Olympic champions who completed seventh at the latest World Cup in 2019 — play New Zealand on Aug. 26, then face Greece and certain Giannis Antetokounmpo on Aug. 28, and conclude group-stage play Aug. 30 towards Jordan.
The U.S. will play all its group stage video games in Manila, whereas Jakarta, Indonesia, and Okinawa, Japan, can even play host to some group video games. Medal rounds are in Manila.
The People — who might be coached by Golden State’s Steve Kerr within the match — have been drawn into Group C, one in every of eight four-team teams for the opening spherical.
“To our associates world wide, be a part of our new ‘Thrilla in Manila,’ the 2023 Basketball World Cup version,” mentioned Manuel Pangilinan, a FIBA Central Board member from the Philippines — utilizing the phrase coined for the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier battle in Manila in 1975.
Defending World Cup champion Spain is in Group G, with Iran, Ivory Coast and Brazil as its opening opponents.
France — which plans to have Victor Wembanyama on its roster — is in Group H, together with Canada, Latvia and Lebanon.
France beat the People within the quarterfinals of the 2019 World Cup, eliminating the U.S. from medal competition and beginning the spiral to a seventh-place end at that occasion, the worst end ever for an American crew that includes NBA gamers.
France topped the U.S. once more on the Tokyo Olympics in group play — however the People received the sport that mattered most, topping France 87-82 for the gold medal.
They haven’t performed since Tokyo however are nonetheless going head-to-head. Philadelphia middle Joel Embiid — an MVP finalist this season, and the presumed favourite — mentioned earlier than the season that he’s deciding whether or not to play internationally for the U.S. or France. He grew to become an American citizen final 12 months.
GROUP BREAKDOWN
All groups in every group play each other within the opening spherical. The highest two groups from every group transfer on to the second spherical; the underside two groups transfer right into a classification match to find out seventeenth by way of thirty second locations on the occasion.
Groups are listed with their world rating.
Group A, Manila: Angola (41), Dominican Republic (23), Philippines (40), Italy (10).
Group B, Manila: South Sudan (62), Serbia (6), China (27), Puerto Rico (20).
Group C, Manila: United States (2), Jordan (33), Greece (9), New Zealand (26).
Group D, Manila: Egypt (55), Mexico (31), Montenegro (18), Lithuania (8).
Group E, Okinawa: Germany (11), Finland (24), Australia (3), Japan (36).
Group F, Okinawa: Slovenia (7), Cape Verde (64), Georgia (32), Venezuela (17).
Group G, Jakarta: Iran (22), Spain (1), Ivory Coast (42), Brazil (13).
Group H, Jakarta: Canada (15), Latvia (29), Lebanon (43), France (5).
AT STAKE
The World Cup is FIBA’s largest match, plus it serves as a solution to qualify for subsequent 12 months’s Paris Olympics.
With the expectation that France might be added as an computerized qualifier for the Olympics as host — most likely not more than a formality, with FIBA not planning to determine till June 30 — there might be seven groups routinely qualifying for berths within the 12-team Olympic match.
The highest two World Cup finishers from Europe and the Americas, in addition to one from Africa, Asia and Oceania, will earn berths into Paris 2024.
VENUE NEWS
The draw capped a three-day run of reports out of Manila — some anticipated, some not.
The unique plan to carry the medal rounds in a 55,000-seat enviornment have been scrapped Thursday over a number of issues, together with the dearth of a visitors scheme that would accommodate such a crowd. The Philippines will play its first two group-stage video games in that enviornment with hopes of setting a World Cup attendance report, however the medal rounds might be on the Mall of Asia Enviornment in Manila — the place the U.S. will play its video games within the group stage.
And on Friday, FIBA announced that the 2027 World Cup was awarded to Qatar.
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